Harbor Church - Mid City

Vision of Harbor Mid-City—Renewing Cities

Jer. 29: 1-10 Mid-City Oct. 17. 2011

This fall we have been looking at our vision statement and going through and helping you understand why each word is there b/c this sentence summarizes who we are as a church. It should also be helpful for those of you who are not yet Christians as well because it gives you a summary or big picture view about the things you should be about as a follower of Jesus if you choose to follow Him.

Now, here is our vision statement: Together, renewing neighbors, neighborhoods, and cities through Jesus Christ. Today we’re going to talk about cities. And I want to thank Tim Keller for his life and ministry in the city and for his insights on this passage because he has certainly influenced my thoughts about cities and this message. Now, in order for us to be involved in the renewal of cities, each one of us must first know how live in the city we’re in and how to relate to it. Sothis morning, we’re going to look at 3 approaches to life in the binantional city of San Diego/Tijuana:

1. Assimilation approach to life in the city

2. Short-timer approach to life in city

3. God’s approach to life in cities?

All 3 of these are actually right here in our text this morning so let me give you the backdrop. See the Israelites were having to figure out how to approach life in this massive city called Babylon. A massive military power called the Babylonian army came in and attacked Israel and defeated them roughly 600 years before Christ. They destroyed the city of Jerusalem and they took those who were left alive with them as prisoners of war to Babylon. And now they have to, as exiles, as prisoners of war, figure out what their life is going to look like in this massive city of Babylon.

The city of Babylon itself was the largest and most influential city of the ancient world. It was located on the Euphrates River, some fifty miles south of modern Baghdad. Its permanent water supply assured year round fertility so people flocked to the city b/c you could always get food and water. It was also connected along trade routes and major caravan routes so it became the economic center of the ancient world. It shaped culture and art and commerce. It was an ancient New York.

And the Israelites, as POWs, are taken to this city and must figure out how to think about life in this massive city full of wildly different religious views and sexual practices and commercial opportunities. Now, obviously, the Babylonians are going to dictate much of what their life looks like in the city. The Babylonians took a really interesting strategy with their prisoners of war that went against the typical strategy we have seen play out in history. The typical military strategy is to round them up and throw them into jail or just to enslave them. Think Pharoah in Egypt or more modern examples with the Vietnam War. But what is the problem here? Bitterness, hatred, rage rises up. Mutiny, escape, insurrection.

So the Babylonians were smart. They said, “Let’s try a different strategy with our prisoners of war: assimilation. Let’s give them access to all the best schools and foods and jobs in the city. Babylon will be the land of opportunity. Sound familiar? But here is the trick, you must become like us. You must adopt our cultural practices and our religious beliefs—you must become Babylonian.

But, if you’ll notice, God would have none of this approach. Look at v6 at the end where he says, “Increase in number there; do not decrease.” God wants the Israelites to actually increase as a people, not to just become a Babylonian. If they followed the Babylonian assimilation approach to the city of complete assimilation, then they would decrease to the point of no longer existing as the people of God.

You see this play out in the life of Daniel. He was taken to the palace and offered the finest Babylonian foods and education. He was even given a new name, a Babylonian name called Belteshazzar, which means my god is Bel, one of the gods of Babylon. See this is actually a brilliant strategy. We’ll just give them a taste of the good life. Give them a ride in a fast car or, I guess for them, it would have been a mule with little extra gitty up. Throw some Babylonian babes there way. Corner office with a view of the city. Got em. What enemy? I’m not an Israelite, I’m a Babylonian.

Everyone who comes to the binational city of San Diego & Tijuana faces this challenge. I know—I immigrated from Alabama. That is another world. I put gel in my hair now. I wear flip-flops year round. I eat sushi and really like it. Raw fish was bait in Alabama that we caught catfish with. I am becoming a Californian. I’m joking, somewhat, but here in Mid-City we have immigrants from all over the world who are constantly wrestling with this tension. 1^st generation and 2^nd generation. What is a cultural preference that I can hold loosely and what is Biblically right and wrong that needs to be my guide. The Babylonians said, “Ahh, don’t worry about the Bible.” That old book—you should become one of us. So the Babylonians try to sell the exiled Israelites on a wholesale assimilation approach to the city. Adopt our gods, our education, our foods, and eventually you will be one of us.

If you are a follower of Jesus, you will face the same challenge today as you think about your life in this city. You don’t believe the Bible do you. Don’t you know that the Bible has been quoted throughout human history by murderers and madmen and used to justify slavery and all sorts of atrocities in history.” Certainly you don’t still believe in this outdated book, right?

And then there is the economic pressure to make it here in the one of the most expensive cities in the world to live. I remember when we first moved here and we were looking at condos and we were talking to my parents about the price of one unit and they said, “Woah, that sounds really expensive. How many acres of land did you get with that condominium? They must have thrown in some horses and cattle for that price, right? Wrong.

Life in the city is expensive, so the pressure to make money becomes high. 2 income families are the norm. Multiple jobs, you’re often forced to work on Sunday, and if you are off on Sunday, well that is when birthday parties are scheduled or just catching up from the week. So you slowly, and almost imperceptibly, stop going to church, you aren’t in a community group because of work schedules and kids schedules and before you know it you have assimilated, completely, just to survive. You have become one with the city, swept up in a stream of assimilation to make it. God says, “No, that isn’t how I want you to live in the city. I don’t want you to simply mesh with the city, to become one with the prevailing beliefs and values and lifestyles.

(2) Short-timers approach to the city

But there is another approach to life in the city that is equally harmful. It is the opposite of an assimilation approach. It is a short-timers approach to life in the city. Hananiah encouraged the people to view Babylon with a short-timer’s approach. In Chapter 28, just before our text, Hananiah makes a false prophecy. He tells the people, “Don’t worry, this exile is going to be over in 2 years.” This is what v8-9 is referring to when it says, “Do not let the prophets and diviners among you deceive you. Do not listen to the dreams you encourage them to have. They are prophesying lies to you in my name. I have not sent them,” declares the Lord.” And then in v10 he tells them that they will be there for 70 years. So Hananiah and the false prophets were encouraging the people to adopt a short-timers mentality to the city. Don’t invest in this pagan city of Babylon, don’t serve them; they are your enemies. They are sinners. Stay separate from them.

A short-timers approach to the city is deadly. Even if you are only going to be here a few months, you can’t adopt a short-timers mentality because then the city is there for you. I am coming for a few months or maybe a few years to have a good time. The city is there for me. To build my resume, have some good times, party it up at the Gaslamp. You don’t really make friendships or get plugged into a church, because well, I am leaving soon. This approach to life in the city is spiritually lethal.

(3) God’s approach to cities

But now let’s look at God’s approach to cities. It is found in verses 4-7, “This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon. “Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce. Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there; do not decrease.” So God says, “Get jobs in construction, gardening, arts. Marry. You’re going to be here a long time. And then the clincher in v7 “Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.”

We tend to think of peace primarily in emotional terms, as if it is a feeling, an inner-calm. So you could read this as God saying, “Go do a little therapy with the Babylonians. Maybe convert a few of them and give them an inner peace. But that isn’t what the Hebrew word for peace has in mind. The Hebrew word for peace is that is used here is much more robust and expansive. It is the word shalom. It means a wellness of being in every area of life. So God was saying, “Go seek the emotional well-being of the city, the physical well-being of the city, the structural, the political, the cultural well-being of the city.

He was calling the Israelites to be agents of shalom, seeking the well-being of the city in every way. Our call is the same today for the binational city of San Diego/Tijuana. We’re called to be agents of shalom, bringing and seeking the shalom of San Diego/Tijuana. Let’s get specific; let me tell you how we’re seeking the shalom of San Diego & Tijuana together here at Mid-City. First, we’re committed to help equip you to seek the cultural shalom of the city, the social shalom of the city, and the spiritual shalom of the city. Culturally, this means that you are not just becoming one with the Babylonians or the San Diegans. No. You actually go to work and think about your work uniquely as a follower of Jesus. Gen. 1:28 is your guide here, a text that is referred to as the cultural mandate. When you go to work, you are doing what God does. God works and he has called you to gain dominion, to order, to create.

Second, you do your work with excellence b/c ultimately, you are working unto the Lord. If you are in the Navy, your boss isn’t your commanding officer, it isn’t the commander in chief, it is God. If you work at Wal-Mart, the Waltons don’t own you, God does. So you work, as Col. 3:23 says, with all your heart b/c you work for the Lord. And, third, seeking the cultural shalom of the city means that you are a person of integrity. As Acts 24:16, you work with a clean conscience before God and men b/c you’re committed to doing the right thing and repenting when you do the wrong thing. This is going to be a huge part of the shalom coming to SD/TJ: followers of Jesus seeking the cultural shalom of the city at work.

But we also want to equip you to seek the social shalom of the city. We spent a whole week on this talking about renewing neighborhoods and our commitment to acts of mercy, to social justice, and to the work of Christian Community Development. This is why you’ll constantly here us putting before you things like Christmas in the City, Urban Life, Refugee Tutoring, Generate Hope. It is because God calls us to seek the well-being of neighbors and neighborhoods that are stuck in cycles of poverty, to enter in and be agents of shalom.

Now, finally, the 3^rd area that we are corporately seeking the shalom of San Diego & Tijuana is the spiritual shalom of San Diego/Tijuana. One of the primary ways we’re doing this is by planting churches. For those of you that worshipped with us on Sunday at our celebration service downtown, you got a feel for what we’re doing. We take 10% of your offering and put it towards the start of neighborhood churches throughout the city. And as we add these neighborhood churches together, when they are aggregated, you begin to see spiritual shalom falling on the city. And, by the way, we aren’t just planting Harbor churches or other PCA churches, but rather we’re working together with other like-hearted churches that love Jesus and hold up His word as their authority to see 1600 churches planted.

Now, remember that in our vision statement it says renewing cities. Plural. There is a reason why we didn’t just say renewing neighbors, neighborhoods, and the city of San Diego/Tijuana. For this first mission chapter for us a a church plant, our focus has been and will continue to be on San Diego. But, eventually we’d like to see the shalom of God extend from San Diego/Tijuana to the ends of the earth. As we grow and develop as a church, we will get increasingly involved in global missions, particularly in helping ignite church planting movements in other global cities throughout the world. We’re doing some investigative work right now in several parts of the world and you’ll be hearing about that in time. And, of course, our long-term dream is to see the nations that have gathered among us meet Jesus, be raised up as leaders, and return to their home countries to plant churches.

In addition to church planting, we’re seeking the spiritual renewal of San Diego/Tijuana by targeted outreach on the college campus. We already support Chizu in her work through Intervarsity among international students, Chris Brewster is leading college life for Urban Life, and we have a team from Campus Outreach joining us shortly.

But all of this, all of this, starts with the personal transformation that Jesus Christ brings. That is why the key word there is Jesus. Is. 9:6, “For unto us a child is born and he shall be called the Prince of Peace, Sar shalom.” The Prince of Shalom came to restore shalom that was disrupted in the Garden in Gen. 3.

The gospels tell us that this prince of shalom was born and began the restoration of shalom. And early in his lifetime, do you know how Jesus did that: as a carpenter, according to Mark 6:3. Doesn’t seem very spiritual, does it. Think about, God punched a clock, worked on the factory floor so to speak with his hands. Bringing shalom meant constructing, building, engineering. God at work, 9 to 5, not just as a rabbit or teacher or pastor, but a carpenter, seeking shalom with his hands.

Then his restoration of shalom continued in his first public miracle by creating wine (hardly seems like something God would be interested in, right—I am going to right this disruption of alcohol being served at a wedding), but then again Jesus always surprises me. He continues his restoration of shalom by healing the sick, the lame, the lepers, bringing dead people and dead things back to life. Do you remember the time in Mk. 4 where a violent storm breaks out on the ocean and the disciples are about to drown and Jesus looks, not at the disciples, but at the raging sea and says, “Peace, be still.” “Shalom, be still.” See this has nothing to do with an inner, emotional calm. He is restoring shalom, as far as the curse is found. He is righting the wrongs of the world.

The epic battle for the restoration of shalom reaches its climax as Jesus heads toward Jerusalem, known as the city of peace or the city of shalom. On his way in he weeps over Jerusalem in Lk. 19 and says, “If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace—but now it is hidden from your eyes.”

And as he goes into the city of shalom to restore shalom, they throw him out of it. Ironic, isn’t it. Why did they do that? B/c people were never executed inside the holy city of Jerusalem because to do so would, in their minds, defile the city. Taking criminals outside the city was symbolically showing that they were not in good standing with the community or with God. But listen to what Heb. 13: 12-14 says, “And so Jesus also suffered outside the city gate to make the people holy through his own blood.” Don’t you see—the only one who had shalom, who had wellness of being with God, who was welcome in the heavenly city of God, was exiled, was cast out of God’s presence, so that we can receive shalom and be welcomed. That is why v13-14 says, “Let us, then go to him outside the camp.” Let us then go to him. Let us then go to him. That, my friends, is where it starts. Going to him, trusting him, as an alien, a foreigner. And guess what He does. He gives you shalom.

See the restoration of shalom is all about going to Jesus. Trusting Him. That is why Jesus, when he was leaving the disciples, said in John 14:27, “Peace I leave you; my peace I give you.” Shalom I leave you; my shalom I give you.” See shalom comes to you through the person of Jesus Christ. The prince of shalom, the resurrected and reigning gives this to you as you go to him, put your trust in Him and then he says, “C’mon, we have work to do, let’s go spread this shalom to all the city.

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